Automation Studio 4 is integrated automation software that delivers three important goals: Keeping quality high, engineering costs low and time to market short.
With the System Designer tool, hardware can be configured easily and with fewer errors thanks to a visual editor and lifelike representations of hardware components. This design tool includes an automated plausibility check and configures basic parameter settings in addition to offering functions for reusing entire parts of a system.
A bidirectional EPLAN Electric P8 interface allows developers to integrate ECAD projects with hardware configurations designed in Automation Studio. This approach reduces the amount of work required and eliminates one possible error source that arises from having two sets of master data. Similar interfaces to simulation software allow applications to be generated automatically from simulation data to test development results at an early stage.
Full support for project modularity makes it possible to split each individual project into a series of autonomous modules. This allows a team of software engineers to work on these modules simultaneously and load them to the hardware separately. Concurrent engineering not only shortens development times, but also makes it easier to integrate external developers into the process and reuse parts of the system that have already been tested.
In addition, communication through OPC Unified Architecture ensures compatibility with numerous systems from other manufacturers. Direct support of web technologies facilitates the development of visualization, process control and remote maintenance applications.
Object-oriented programming in Automation Studio 4 has become more efficient thanks to the SmartEdit feature that generates context-related suggestions from function libraries and existing program sections. Visualization templates also accelerate user interface design.
B&R Industrial Automation Corp
www.br-automation.com
Filed Under: ENGINEERING SOFTWARE, MOTION CONTROL